A Florida Proud Boys member who was recorded yelling “Let’s take the f—ing Capitol!” before rioting began and who led a charge that broke through a key police line on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison.
Daniel Lyons Scott, 30, of Bradenton, Fla., pleaded guilty in February to assaulting officers and obstructing Congress’s confirmation of the 2020 election.
Scott, known as “Milkshake,” “bulldozed two officers” guarding a staircase leading up from the lower West Terrace, prosecutors said. Scott’s assault helped clear the way for a mob led by fellow Proud Boys members to “open up the whole west side of the Capitol” and reach a level with exterior doors and windows, through which the building was first breached 20 minutes later, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis Loeb said.
“Scott is one of the few rioters whose conduct can be fairly characterized as potentially a but-for cause of the actual breach of the U.S. Capitol building,” Loeb said, calling his conduct “pivotal,” dangerous and aggravated.
What to know about the Proud Boys sedition trial
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The defendant is one of nearly 20 people the government described as “tools” of the Proud Boys whose actions on Jan. 6 were orchestrated or inspired by four leaders of the right-wing group found guilty of seditious conspiracy in May. Scott was admonished earlier that day by Proud Boys leaders to not yell on camera about the group’s plans or intentions as they circled the Capitol before President Donald Trump finished speaking at a rally near the White House and directed angry supporters to march to Congress.
“Obviously, I made a mistake,” Scott told the court. “The best that I can say is I regret what happened on January 6, and I’ll have to live with it the rest of my life. People died, got concussions, and police officers up there just doing their jobs got hurt.”
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said he found Scott genuine and acknowledged his defense attorney’s appeal for leniency because of the health issues and hardship faced by Scott’s wife, but said that his mistake “affected the whole country.”
“Our society can’t endure without people knowing that courts and officials are going to do the right thing, that courts are going to enforce the law, and that they are not going to allow a repeat of this,” Lamberth said.
